HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) employee Gareth Hopkins (48) has been jailed for 2 1/2 years for an elaborate income tax repayment fraud which netted him over £210,500.

Hopkins, of Thomas Street, Mountain Ash, Mid Glamorgan, pleaded guilty to five offences of Cheating the Public Revenue and one of False Accounting Contrary to the Theft Act.

Investigations undertaken by HMRC show that between 24 July 1998 and 14 November 2005, Hopkins created false taxpayer identities and details on the Department's computer systems. He generated seven false income tax repayments totalling £210,564.74. An attempt by Hopkins to issue a further repayment in the sum of £14,960.00 in November 2005 was prevented.

Two customs officials and five others have been jailed for their part in a £7 million smuggling racket.

Paul Weaver, 35, and Steven Phillips, 34, formerly customs employees at Ramsgate port in Kent, were sentenced to four years and four and half years respectively for their role in smuggling cigarettes and alcohol.

The pair were part of a gang which worked between January 1st 2003 and December 10th 2003 bringing goods into the country to be sold on cheaply without duty being paid.

They pleaded guilty to conspiracy to fraudulently evade the duty chargeable on excise goods and were sentenced at Southwark crown court today.

Both Weaver, of Cheriton, Kent, and Phillips, of Ramsgate, were also given a £10,000 confiscation order.

In all three cases officers hijacked claims, adjusted them and redirectedpayments to external accomplices. Weak procedures allowed the frauds to beperpetrated which were discovered as a result of routine internal checks.Internal audit has reviewed procedures and have made recommendations toreduce the risk of similar frauds arising. At the time of reporting, thedepartment was awaiting the outcome of internal investigations before takingaction against the employees but the likelihood is that the perpetrators will beprosecuted.A departmentís monitoring system detected a number of cases involving thecreation of false records and repayment claims. Staff colluded with members ofthe public to whom false repayments were made. The perpetrators weresuspended from duty and, at the time of reporting, cases were being preparedwith a view to taking criminal proceedings. A study has been commissioned toidentify controls to overcome the weaknesses highlighted by these frauds.A member of staff processed two repayment claims for non-existent minorspaying the money to his partner. Investigations revealed four similar cases. Inall cases the repayments were not supported by appropriate documentation.The officer was suspended from duty and further action will be taken oncompletion of departmental investigations. At the time of reporting it was notknown what control weaknesses allowed the fraud to be perpetrated andinternal audit was asked to review systems with a view to improving control.A Payable Order for £8.53 had been fraudulently altered and cashed. The bank

Discovered the alteration. The case is still under investigation.An officer working in collusion with 3 members of the public and twocommercial entities abused his position to help the perpetrators claim refundsto which they were not entitled. The fraud came to light as a result ofinformation provided by internal detective controls. The officer was dismissedand he and the other perpetrators were prosecuted and received custodial orsuspended prison sentences. Management have introduced better rotation ofduties and improved record control.

As more and more is written and exposed about this subject, HMRC will have to pursue the fraudsters rather than us, as 'soft' targets, or face a complete loss of public confidence and being a national laughing stock.

Morpheus : Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.

Hmmmm, thing is though that all HMRC care about is balancing the books, after all for Self Assessment, they only care about tax payments/repayments balancing at best and at worst the Exhequer not being out of pocket; not about Joe Bloggs having paid more tax than he should [even if they've undercalculated his liability]Next thing will be Treasury comparing what CSA should have retreived compared to tc overpayments, then saying hey guys, you've had the money anyway. Mind you, that'd mean them writing loads of tc ops off and I can't quite see them doing that

That is a question I often ask myself. How would they be able to justify 1 claim from another. They would have to remit and repay, the millions already clawed back and then start a fresh, this time with trained employees, who also have accountability.This makes me think, have they started something they just can't stop...

>>How would they be able to justify 1 claim from another<<As the ostrich; aka 'red dawn' used to say 'That information is not avalable' if it got real tricky...'is not available under the exemption of the freedom of information act' hmrc are exempt for all sorts of stuff that could prove difficult to explain. In fact, white space on many of their web pages must be getting fairly embarrassing.

It does seem a strange coincidence that birds are a dinosaurs nearest relative.Never mind, in 25 years we will know the real reasons. (or at least our off-spring will.

>>How would they be able to justify 1 claim from another<<As the ostrich; aka 'red dawn' used to say 'That information is not avalable' if it got real tricky...'is not available under the exemption of the freedom of information act' hmrc are exempt for all sorts of stuff that could prove difficult to explain. In fact, white space on many of their web pages must be getting fairly embarrassing.

It does seem a strange coincidence that birds are a dinosaurs nearest relative.Never mind, in 25 years we will know the real reasons. (or at least our off-spring will.

It's funny you should say that about the FoI missing text, Sammy. Tracy Gale's letter of 26 September admits that that FoI message shouldn't have been plastered all over the manual:

"Most of the Claimant Compliance Manual is already available to the public. For a short period over the summer some pages in chapter 15 were withheld because they contained outdated information. It would have been confusing if this continued to be available whilst it was being rewritten as it would have given the wrong information. It was unfortunate that a message was displayed saying this information had been withdrawn under Freedom of Imformation; this was not correct. All of that material is now available."

Shall we check? Funny how it all went missing (as Sarah said) when we trooped off to London to meet with HMRC. What were they hiding?

Morpheus : Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.